Worst Sox Play

[owensmouth]

When I really get into my pessimistic moods about the White Sox, I always remember Ron Hansen.

Now Hansen was a pretty good shortstop. He came from Baltimore in the trade that sent Aparicio and Smith to the O's for Hansen, Wilhelm, Nicholson and Pete Ward.

Now picture this: 1 out, score tied, extra innings at Yankee Stadium. Ground ball to the shortstop and... and... and... Hansen fumbles the blanketie blank double play grounder, allowing the winning run to score.

Oh yeah, a month later under the exact same conditions, he did the same thing.

The Yankees beat out the White Sox that year by 1 game. If he had just made one of those plays...

[TommyJohn]

I wasn't born then. But if what you say is true then
what we need to do is call and harass
him, make life miserable for him and any family members,
flatten his tires, break his windows and hound him in
print until he realizes what a rotten, horrible excuse for
a human being he is for inflicting so much pain and misery
on so many suffering, gentle folk. Oh, and find the balls he
made the errors with and blow them up.

[owensmouth]

It's true, it's true.

Hansen played shortstop for the Sox for several years. He was a good fielder and one of the first shortstops with some power, He hit better than 20 homers in '64 and that meant something at Comiskey Park.

Because those were against the Yankees, those games were televised.

[Railsplitter]

When i was a kid, It always seemed that whenever somebody on the Sox swung on the first pitch, it was always hit rigth at somebody.

[ode to veeck]

On the other hand, if someone other than Ron Hansen had been playing SS the rest of the season (Aparicio doesn't count due to the trade that also acquired Hoyt, Ward, Nicholson, etc), the Sox would likely have finshed lower than 1 game out. Hindsight is always golden, but its still hindsight, even to the extreme case of the Panigua-ism in Sept '03. No one can really say what have happened, and in the case of Hansen, he was actually a prettty decent SS.